Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	believe_v	church_n	infallible_a	2,870	5	9.5232	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39770	The confirming work of religion, or, its great things made plain, by their primary evidences and demonstrations whereby the meanest in the church may soon be made to render a solid and rational account of their faith / written by R. Fleming ... ; now published by Daniel Burgess.	Fleming, Robert, 1630-1694.; Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.	1693 (1693)	Wing F1279; ESTC R6736	83,701	146

assent to the Divinity of the Scripture and were now press●d to joyn in with that Profession of the Christian Faith which is most exactly conform to the same in the genuine and perspicuous sence thereof In the second place he hath sought to know how he could imbrace the Popish Creed and adventure his Eternal state thereon or how he could extinguish his Reason and Conscience so far as to believe that the Holy God would ever impose such a Faith upon men as this is 1. Where he must abandon these Principles of natural Reason in the most necessary use thereof which God hath himself planted in mans Soul so as not to trust his own Eyes but others in that great Interest of his Eternal State and with his own consent be shut out from all proper knowledge of the rule of his Religion yea account a blind and unlimited Obedience to men amongst the highest Excellencies of Faith 2. Where he must at once believe the Fulness and Perfection of the Scripture which is not only fitted for that great end of bringing Mankind to God but for such an universal use herein as to make the Simple wise and cause the Poor to receive the Gospel and yet believe also that it is a Mass of dead and unsensed Characters until the Romish Clergy put a just Sense thereon tho its Sense and meaning is the very Soul thereof Yea thus pass from the Letter of the same and all Certainty of its Truth from Intrinsick Evidences and these Marks and Characters of its Divinity whereby the Christian Cause could be maintain'd against Pagans 3. Where he must believe also that these are the Words of Christ Joh. 7.17 If any man do my will he shall know my Doctrine whether it be of God or not and that men err through not knowing the Scripture Mat. 22. And yet believe all the while that these sacred Fountains of Light should be shut up to keep men from Errors and that the sole right of understanding the same belongs to a few not to the Multitude who yet can pretend no extraordinary Assistance or Revelation herein nor will themselves come to these waters of Jealousie to be tried 4. Where he must needs believe that the Scriptures are the Oracles of God committed to the Church to give answer in every dark Case Rom. 3.2 The Type and Form of sound Doctrine Rom. 6.17 Unto whose Sentence in all matters both of Faith and Practice we are expresly referred Isa 8.20 And yet believe also that it hath no Authority or Decisive Voice but what is Precarious and dependant on the Romish Church And thus Consent to have the whole Christian Faith Visibly unhinged of the Foundation of the Scripture and subjected to a Supream Visible and pretended Infallible Judge here in the Earth with such a claim of Dominion over the Faith of the Saints as the Apostles of Christ durst never own but did fully disclaim 2 Cor. 1.24 5. Where he must believe that Jesus Christ came for this end to save lost man and by one Offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.18 And yet joyn with the same a Faith of a human Satisfaction for Sin so as men may both Merit Mediate and Supertrogate go above what is needful for themselves And so be saved in the same way of Life which was by the Covenant of Works ascribing no more to Christ than the giving Salvation to mens own Merits which their own Intrinsick Value and Condignity doth require as a Debt 6. He finds not how in the same Creed he could possibly hold by one Mediator betwixt God and Man where a Plurality for this end is admitted and by the reality of Christs human Nature and his having a true and finite Body which is subjected to have a new created Being each time in the Consecrated Host or beli●ve the Truth of his Sufferings as now fully accomplished and to be repeated no more when it is in that daily Sacrifice of the Mass still offered as a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead So on the most severe and impartial inquiry he cannot find how one holding these Principles should go a further length than Morality or claim another standing than by a Covenant of Works 7. Nor knows he how to believe at once the Truth of the Gospel to be a Doctrine of Holiness and Infinite Purity and yet joyn in the same Faith such an Indulgence for men to Sin that Money may stand for Merit and the Rich may have the most easie and large Entry into Heaven Conceit that it is a Priviledge for men to destroy themselves and by External Severities and Penance to the Flesh like to the Lancing and Gashing of Baals Priests supply the room of Christian Mortification 8. Yea he finds it not possible to believe that Sin can only be expiated by the Blood of Christ and is his alone Work who hath purged our Sin himself Heb. 1.3 Or that there are more than two ways that lead to a twofold State of men a Strait way which leads to a Life and a Broad unto Destruction Mat. 7.14 and yet believe that there is a Purgatory after this life wherein men must be tormented and suffer extream Pains to expiate such Venial Sins as their Prayers and Penances here could not do yea he is made to wonder how any who believes such a thing can ever have true Peace or Comfort in the World concluding that Papists do either take it as a Fiction or forget themselves when they are chearful For the fear of such a place the Uncertainty of Release and how long a term it may be ere this Purging Work be compleat when their own Writers Assign no less time than 10000 Years as needful to satisfie for some Sins and fear lest it prove a real Hell must still be a piercing terrour nor can he believe that such should Credit themselves herein who assume this Power to Change the Condition of the Dead Since were it really believed that the Keys of such a Prison were here in mens hands and Folk could by the largest Bribes to the Romish Church get a safe Deliverance thence it were not strange to see the Temporal State of Christendom in a short time made over to these We should Judge they were in a strange manner indeed priviledged above the whole residue of men who by such a Power over the World to come could make so easie a Purchase of this also which is present 9. He finds and is sure he could never get his Reason and Conscience brought to such a Faith even tho he made a feigned Profession herein of that pretended Supremacy of Peter as Bishop of Rome on which the whole frame and structure of the Papacy leans and the Vertue of all the Pardons and Absolutions founded thereon on which so many have adventured into an other World except he would build on the Sand only and not on the Rock 10. He finds also how

the World might see did walk in the Light and Power of Christianity as sure as men walk under the Power and Vertue of a living Soul III. That we now see what a length the Course of the Gospel and of the Church Militant is come and how far thus the Times of the Gentiles are fulfilled which once was so contrary to all human Appearance IV. That so sure and exact a Performance of the Scripture is now undeniable in the event and of such great and marvellous things which were foretold under the New Testament that in an ordinary way none could have believed what we see with our Eyes and now have these things which were in former Ages the Object of the Churches Faith been made the Object of our Sense and it 's sure this is such a Seal and Confirmation to our Faith in these last times as doth much exceed the greatest Miracles which were in the first Planting of the Gospel V. Though we may not resolve our Faith on any Extraordinary Providences or lay the least weight hereon to support the Authority of the Doctrine we profess since this only is founded on that Sacred Revelation of Divine Truth in the Scripture which is the infallible Rule to discern true Miracles and what is Gods Seal herein under the undoubted Signature and Stamp of his own Power and working in the same yet hath there been such incontroulable evidence of extraordinary Signs and Confirmations to confirm the Truth of the Reformed Religion since the Reformation as in no Ages past was ever known but with the first planting of the Gospel among the Gentiles SECTION IV. Qu. I. IS it clear and demonstrable that the Doctrine of Christ is a Soul-Quickning and Experimental Religion and the Trial thereof in its most Supernatural Truths of such rational Certainty and Evidence that the World can no more deny or question the same than those Experiments of Nature that are of most universal Use Ans Though men looked but at a distance here or were come from Heathenism so far as to make a Serious Trial of Christianity it 's sure they could not but see and be fully perswaded in their Judgment hereof on these grounds I. That a discovery is undoubted and clear in the Scripture of so great things as that there is a Holy Ghost and there be his workings on Mens Souls of Peace with God and the Joy of his Presence which all who receive the Gospel are called to know and prove on their own Trial. II. That this witness of Christian Experience hath as discernable a Consent and Harmony therewith as Face answereth to Face in the Glass and is clear to be no Casual Thing but every step in this way of Trial is by Scripture Light and what Christians did before read there they know it now by Feelings on their own Souls III. That this in all Ages of the Church and where-ever such as served God in the Spirit were found in the most remote parts from others hath still been the same and like a great Roll is sent down from one Generation to another with their Confirmatory Seal that God is faithful and true in those Truths of his Word which seem most incredible to the World and now come to our hand to require the same Attestation and Witness IV. That they who know and testifie these things sometimes found it not easie to believe the same and did no less judge of such great Experiments of Religion as a Dream or imaginary thing than most now do until they knew them by Experience on their Soul V. That such also have been the most Burning and Shining Lights that ever were in the Church and these innumerable in all Ages declare the same and that in the Mouth of the Grave and entrance to an Eternal State when no outward Interest could sway them hereto VI. That it must be a matter of greatest Assurance which hath then pressed the most tender Parents with their last and dying Breath to commend the same Trial to their Children and to charge their being earnest herein as the greatest Interest they could leave them VII That whatever Differences be oft among these in some matters of Truth Yet in the Certainty of this great Trial of the Life Power and Comforts of Religion there is an Harmonious Oneness in the same Testimony in all Times of the Church VIII That if any question this because so remote from Mens Senses and the Judgment of Carnal Reason the reality of its Effects doth unanswerably prove both the Reality and Excellency of the Cause Qu. II. What clear and Rational Conviction can you offer of so great a thing as Conversion of men from a State of Nature to a new state by Grace which doth raise them as far above the residue of Mankind as Reason doth above the state of the Beasts Ans Though I should strive against the Conviction of such a Miracle and Demonstration of the Gospel as Conversion is yet were it not possible to deny such demonstrative Evidences as the World hath hereof I. That it is sure such a Change is made essentially requisite to the Being and Constitution of a Christian by the whole Consent of the Scripture II. That there was never yet an Argument in Nature for ones being a Christian in the Life and Power thereof what ever may be for a naked form or show III. That they are not a few but innumerable Instances in all times and of all Ranks and Conditions of Men on whom so great a Change and difference hath been made thus evident both from themselves what once they were and from the residue of the World IV. That this hath been not only upon such as have been signally Impious in their Practice but who in their Judgment were wont to deride Holiness as a Fancy so as Atheists must grant that there have been as profest Atheists sometimes as themselves who have been made such Conspicuous Monuments of the Power of the Gospel V. That none can Object here as once the Jews did Do any of the Rulers or such as the World counts most wise and knowing stand witnesses to the same when it is so known that there have not been more Wise Learned and Judicious in the Things of Reason upon the Earth than such as have been eminent Examples of the Power of Conversion VI. That its marvellous Effects in subduing men from what once was their Predominant Interest and Idol and to part from what had been as their right Eye or Hand could only be from an Immediate Divine Power VII That such as were greatest Adversaries to the Truth have been made no less eminent Instruments in the Service of Christ and choice Vessels of Honour than once they were in their Enmity and Opposition VIII That this Change hath been discernable in times of most Visible Persecutions and Hazard when no outward Advantage or Gain could have the least influence thereon Now as these are demonstrably clear so can